My "Most hated SFF Characters" post of a few weeks back created some waves, which proves that the SFF online community has grown a bit lame in some regards in the last couple of years. Some dumbasses argued that I totally missed the point, that those authors wanted readers to dislike these characters, even though I had already commented on the issue. Ah well, what can you do!?!

Anyway, some people opined that I should post a list of my favorite SFF characters to put things into perspective, so here you go. Make of this what you will. . . =)

In no particular order:

- Anomander Rake (Steven Erikson's The Malazan Book of the Fallen): The Dragnipur-wielding Son of Darkness is too cool for school! One of the most enigmatic and fascinating fantasy character ever!

- Alaric Morgan (Katherine Kurtz's Deryni saga): The King Kelson books wouldn't be the same without him!

- Gerald Tarrant (C. S. Friedman's The Coldfire Trilogy): Villain, antihero, or both, this is one of the most memorable SFF protagonists ever. This quote sums up this character well: You cannot begin to comprehend my motivations.

- Nakor the Isalani (Raymond E. Feist's The Riftar, The Serpentwar, and other Midkemia novels): Eccentric trickster, this little magician of a man is often the highlight of a Feist book. Want an orange?

- Drusas Achamian (R. Scott Bakker's Prince of Nothing and The Aspect-Emperor series): A member of the Mandate School of magic, he joins the Holy War by order of his superiors. But when he teaches Anasûrimbor Kellhus his secrets, he realizes that there is a lot more than meets the eye.

- FitzChivalry (Robin Hobb's The Farseer and The Tawny Man series): Boy does Hobb make this poor guy suffer in these books. The first person narrative makes us feel every second of it. The author nearly made me cry twice, once in each trilogy. . .

- Jon Snow (George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire): For my money, probably the most interesting character in the whole series. GRRM likely has a heartbreaking demise in store for him, though. . .

- Angus Thermopyle (Stephen R. Donaldson's The Gap series): Not the most likeable character, true, but man did he make that scifi series an unforgettable read!

- Harry Dresden (Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files): Not always the sharpest tool in the shed, it's impossible not to root for this down-on-his-luck wizard!

- Ben Adaephon Delat (Steven Erikson's The Malazan Book of the Fallen): We may not know all of Quick Ben's secrets yet, but there's no denying that this former priest of the Shadow is one cool character!

- Kalam Mekhar (Steven Erikson's The Malazan Book of the Fallen): Assassin and Bridgeburner, the man is so bad-ass that even elite members of the Claw fear him! Being paired with Quick Ben always makes for fun times and fireworks!

- Admiral Thrawn (Timothy Zahn's Star Wars: The Thrawn Trilogy and The Hand of Thrawn): God knows Lucas Books have sold out years ago, producing turd after turd. But Admiral Thrawn was a great character!

- Locke Lamora (Scott Lynch's The Gentleman Bastard): Yes, he fucks up and gets the shit beaten out of him in every book, but it doesn't get much better than this! Lynch created a superstar, no question about it!

- Moiraine Damodred (Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time): Along with Siuan Sanche, the only well-drawn Aes Sedai character of the series.

- al'Lan Mandragoran (Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time): Diademed Battle Lord, uncrowned king of Malkier, and Warder to Moiraine, Lan is doubtless one of the best characters in WoT. Of course, RJ had to marry him to Nynaeve. . .

- Jaime Lannister (George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire): Villain and then good guy, I love how GRRM turned him around and made readers root for him.

- Tyrion Lannister (George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire): This misshapen dwarf nicknamed "The Imp" has become a fan-favorite. In addition, he is in my opinion the most interesting POV character.

- Haplo the Patryn (Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman's The Death Gate Cycle): Sent to scout the elemental worlds in search of the Sartan and throw them into chaos to pave the way for the return of the Patryn, Haplo and his dog were a wonderful pair in a series that showcased Weis and Hickman at their peak.

- Inquisitor Glokta (Joe Abercrombie's The First Law): Some characters sometimes take on a life of their own and steal the spotlight of entire novels and series. Glotka is one of those, and hopefully one day we'll get to see him again. . .

- Fiddler (Steven Erikson's The Malazan Book of the Fallen): This sapper didn't look like much early on, but he surely came into his own as the series progressed. As things stand, he's one of the most interesting character in the series.

- Whiskeyjack (Steven Erikson's The Malazan Book of the Fallen): Bridgeburner sergeant, the man doesn't necessarily say or do a whole lot. But all of his men defer to him, and that respect rubs off on the readers.

- Arya Stark (George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire): Hands down, my favorite of the Stark siblings. She's got more balls than many male characters, and her storyline has the potential to be one of the most interesting in the entire series.

- Raistlin Majere (Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman's Dragonlance): The sickly golden-skinned wizard with the hourglass eyes who went back in time to face the legendary mage Fistandantilus and then challenged the Queen of Darkness herself to become a god captured the imagination of a twelve-year-old and introduced me to fantasy novels. The rest, as they say, is history!

My favorite is Malazan recruit #112 in the 14th... you know the one who constantly wonders why they are fighting and wonders if capitalist expansion is indeed good? Then promptly gets his leg cut off by a nun chuk velociraptor?

This is a great great list. I agree with so many of these names. I was surprised to see Jon Snow up there--for my money, the originality of Jaime, Tyrion and Arya make Jon look like a walking fantasy cliche.

I like the Raistlin pick a lot, but I would also add Fizban. Probably my favorite god character in any fantasy work (Cotillion is up there too). Tasselhoff is a little TOO cute for my taste though.

And I'm surprised you picked Mat over Perrin. I really hated basically every character in the WoT except for Perrin (I gave up on the series before Perrin spends the rest of his life rescuing whatshername, so maybe that's why he wasn't ruined for me).

Why should he start thinking about what he is reading and who was the writer?Are we now required to make a reading list with male and female writers alternating? PCness is certainly getting more ridiculous by the minute.Next thing it'll be a rotation of colour, sexual orientation and religion along with gender.

I meant I'd agree with:Why should he start thinking about what he is reading and who was the writer?Are we now required to make a reading list with male and female writers alternating? PCness is certainly getting more ridiculous by the minute.Next thing it'll be a rotation of colour, sexual orientation and religion along with gender.

Not that I disagree with:Someone mentioned gender bias: please tell me any female character in sff of any importance. I'm a female and I can't think of any that would be a fav.but I will say "pwned."

Is interesting that you chose Raistlin Majere. It was my first start with fantasy as well. My first post of my blog was also a long characterization to Raistlin. Mainly Soulforge. With another one called Gilead's Blood are probably the only two book I re-read every couple of years.

I am always looking for good evil characteres. I don't know if you read Black Library books but there are alot of this characters there. Some are anti-heroes and some are just plain evil that gain main characterization. If you want I could give you an hint for a book or two. (either SF or Fantasy )

I second Croaker as a favorite character.Other favorites are:- Durendal from the King's Blades series- Pinkus Ghort from the The Instrumentalities of the Night- Giogioni Wyvernspur from The Wyvern's Spur

On the other hand, I could never get into The Coldfire Trilogy. The third book awaits to be finished since I just lost interest.

+1 for Mat, still my favorite character of all, even though some on the list are close.imo, Kruppe needs to join that list, on rereads, he is hillarious.same for Bugg or Tehol depending on who you think controls their interactions.

- WoT: Perrin all the way, though I can respect Mat, Lan and Moiraine as choices. I also actually ::brace yourself:: like Faile, but that's probably a longer conversation... :P

- Dragonlance: I love Tanis, I love Tas, I love Sturm, I love Kitaira. But yeah, ultimately it's Raistlin FTW. Have you heard of this?:http://www.therejectionist.com/2010/04/happy-international-raistlin-majere-day.html

- ASoIaF: Jon Snow!? Are you kidding me, man? He's the most generic character in the series! It's a tribute to GRRM's writing that even given this I don't hate Snow, but geez. This one's gotta be a tie between Tyrion and Arya.

- Thrawn ruled, also, though I also dug the batshit evil Jedi, whatever his name was. Those Zahn books were great...

Most of your choices I agree with, I would skip a'Lan through, I reckon he's a very dull character.

I still don't understand this love of Jon Snow that everyone seems to have, I think he's a pathetically bland character with a crap storyline - I HOPE he dies a horrible death and we never find out the truth of his parentage. Arya and Tyrion MAKE that series.

I wasn't such a big fan of Anomander either, not until Toll The Hounds anyway.

Anonymous: I much prefer the nameless Malazan recruit #72 who gets decapitated by a K'Chain Che'Malle. That dude was living life in the fast lane and went up in a blaze of glory! But it was him or Fiddler, so. . .

Anonymous 2: Liking books and characters is a very subjective thing. I'm no authority. These are just my own favorites. Your claim is as ridiculous as if you were calling me stupid for not liking broccoli when I list my favorite foods.

"Why should he start thinking about what he is reading and who was the writer?

Are we now required to make a reading list with male and female writers alternating? PCness is certainly getting more ridiculous by the minute.

Next thing it'll be a rotation of colour, sexual orientation and religion along with gender."

Amen!

Sudhana: There is nothing wrong in being constructively critical of the genre we love. Trying to make me into a sexist pig when some of my favorite SFF authors are female isn't all that constructive, methinks! But that's just me...

Saladin: I know we are at different ends of the spectrum where politics are concerned, and I'm cool with that. But man, if you actually like Faile... Got to draw the line somewhere, I'm afraid... :P

Okay, since many of you are throwing names around, here are a few characters who didn't make the final cut:

Pat: Thanks for responding. I guess I was a little surprised at the venom in the responses to anonymous 2...and then I checked out your previous post. Waves have been made, I seem to have caught them a bit late :)

You're not a sexist pig, I hope you didn't take that meaning from my post.

It really isn't my business, but as for male vs female characters on favourite / hate lists, I think that most (at least male) readers simply like characters who behave like badass men. Women are cool when they're like Arya Stark, but when they're more like women in real world, they somehow become uninteresting. The same goes with manly mans vs "girly" mans. Just my $o.o2.

I haven't read all the books that are covered here, but I mostly agree with those I'm familiar with. Although I wouldn't pick Jon Snow or Tyrion from ASOAIF, but I consider Arya and Jaime to be cool characters as well.

Funny, I recognize like four or five of those characters at all... And I read a lot of SFF. I understand Ice and Fire and Farseer or WoT characters, but some of those others I'm seeing for the first time.

I probably should check out the Malazan series though... I'm hearing too much good stuff about it.

I'd have to agree with the person suggesting Mara of the Acoma... I loved that series because of her, making me shake my head in wonder how the two authors can write such garbage when they are on their own. Hehe.

I'd also have to suggest Gemmel's Waylander or Jon Shannow. He may have pressed his usual self-destruct button and screwed them up in later stories, but they were great characters originally.

- Erevis Cale from Paul S. Kemp's two trilogies - Croaker from the Black Company - Logen Ninefingers in Abercrombies trilogy (the bloody nine) - Shenkt in Best Served Cold (best assassin ever) - Severian in Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun - Anasûrimbor in The Prince of Nothing - 75% of the female characters in Guy Gavriel Kay's novels - Druss from Gemmell's Legend - Elric from Moorcock - Lin the Khepri in Perdido Street Station

If I have to narrow it down, it's Locke Lamora, Quick Ben, Tehol (the Malazan books are full of memorable characters. Hell, I'd mention Coltaine as the most memorable one. One book, and yet his impact...), Tyrion Lannister, Raistlin and Takeshi Kovacs for me.

Firstly, my impression is that Pat reads far more fantasy than SF. It is therefore not surprising that there's more favorite characters from fantasy series.

Anyway, Pat is free to read whatever he pleases, this is his very own blog!Even if he started to read and review Harlequin romances from tomorrow on, we'd have no right to order him do otherwise. I would simply stop following the blog...

And hey, this blog is called FANTASY hotlist...

Moreover, some SF seems to center more around ideas and sometimes neglects characterization which might lead to less impressive characters.

Secondly, the predominance of male characters may have several reaons.Pat might simply like male characters more - again, if this were so: it's HIS favorites, he didn't claim anything else.

But another fact might be important here. A lot of fantasy takes place in societies that are dominated by males. Thus a lot of action is driven by male characters. A band of male thieves/merchants/warriors is nothing to be surprised about in these worlds. Reverting the sexes would work all that well anymore, it would be quite implausible in many settings.

This absolutely doesn't mean that there won't be any notable female characters but simply that there are to be expected many more male characters to choose from.

Roland: I'll be the first to admit that I'm not as well-versed in science fiction as I am with the fantasy genre. But as Jens pointed out, characterization doesn't shine through as much in scifi/space opera as it does in fantasy.

Hence, though Dune was awesome (other than God-Emperor of Dune), no characters achieved the timelessness of a Frodo or Aragorn, etc.

"- Admiral Thrawn (Timothy Zahn's Star Wars: The Thrawn Trilogy and The Hand of Thrawn): God knows Lucas Books have sold out years ago, producing turd after turd. But Admiral Thrawn was a great character!"

Pat, while I'm glad you included Thrawn in your list - I'm having trouble with your blanket condemnation of Star Wars books. I'm looking through your reviews and going back several years now and can't even find the last Star Wars book you read and reviewed. Meanwhile, you've given away as contests some of the best stuff to come out in years, things from Matthew Stover, Karen Traviss and Drew Karpyshyn. Like all book reading, there are excellent books and ones that are not as great - much more author dependant than "license" dependant.

Pat, I couldn't disagree more. Where characterization is concerned, SF is just as viable as F. It's just that usually it doesn't depend on endless series of books where you grow old with the characters...

Jens - nobody is attacking Pat's sacred right to write whatever he pleases on his blog. Down, boy!

Hm. Some other folks' entries remind me that I've missed some favorite rogue types. Love Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser equally -- and, had I been ,making up my own list rather than responding to Pat's they would have been near the top of the list. From Lynch's books, I'd actually have to go with Jean moreso than Locke. The English teacher in me loves the whole dual-axe-wielding lover-of-poetry thing :)